The Badge Archive

Basic Meeting Plans are designed to have minimal supplies and still hit the GSUSA Requirements. Most meetings can be done in a 90 minute time frame.

Items Needed:

• Print out the Tree Rings
• For every 6 scouts:
  • 3-1/2 cups of birdseed
  • 3/4 cup of flour
  • 1 gelatin packet
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 6 canning lids with twine to hang
  • one large mixing bowl and a spoon to stir
• Pen and Paper for each scout
• Sticks for scouts to make a hexagon on the ground they can stand in
• Send home a worksheet for them to make a bar graph from data you get from birds (how much food they eat each day, how many birds you see, or how much food eaten at different locations) or bring some data to make a graph at the meeting. (No current printable, you have to make this one up).

Age of Trees

Use the Tree Rings to learn how to count the rings to tell how old the trees are.

(Requirement 1 Earned)

Hexagons

Draw a diagram a hexagon and scale it (the hexagon becomes a stick hexagon on the ground you can stand in).

(Requirement 2 Earned)

Calculate Birdseed

Calculate the ratios how much feed for each feeder.

(Requirement 4 Earned)

Make a Bird Feeder

Make a feeder to use with the birdseed.

(Requirement 3 Earned)

Bar Graphs

Teach them how Bar Graphs work.

Send home a worksheet for them to make a bar graph from data you get from birds (how much food they eat each day, how many birds you see, or how much food eaten at different locations) or bring some data to make a graph at the meeting.

(Requirement 5 Earned)

Meeting End

Scouts can make pretend bar graphs from mock data until it’s time to go home.

General Notes

Note to Leaders – No Basic Plan compiled by The Badge Archive will earn multiple badges in one level. Part of being budget friendly is not costing more than the price of one official GSUSA badge per meeting.

Some badges will take two meetings to finish. This helps scouts enjoy activities and keeps the troop budget in mind by only needing one GSUSA badge for every two meetings. Troops may choose to get a fun patch for one of the meetings if scouts want a badge/patch for every meeting. Scouts can earn the fun patch if they only attend one meeting and get a fun patch and the official badge if they go to both.